Computer died, in need of a fast replacement

[deed]

Tonight my pc finally kicked the bucket after multiple lingering issues. I'm in need of a new one ordered by Monday so I can get back to work.
I was planning for the latest Polaris or Pascal release and Zen before making an upgrade. With this happening I'm unable to wait until then because it's 1. a work pc and 2. a gaming pc.

So currently I'm using a friends pc that I can use until a new on is ordered. I have a budget of $750 give or take $50. I'm mostly an amd/radeon fanboy but really I'm just looking for the most reliable and best value I can get for the budget regardless of brand.

Going to need the works, hard drive, video card, cpu, case, motherboard, power supply etc. Would anyone be willing to come up with or link a good parts list for my budget on a pc that I use for coding and gaming on games such as battlefield, crysis, dirt, path of exile?. I may do a very slight overclock if possible and would like to run something quieter than a stock cpu cooler.

I'd like to go with at least a 500gb SSD for long term use but I'm not sure how viable ssd's are as the main storage solution these days so I'd very much appreciate if you guys who are more experienced and up to date with the latest hardware could come up with something that would generally take me 2-3 weeks of research.

I have considered something like this to start but I really feel like i'm not getting the best configuration.
Intel Core i5-4590
Asus H81M-
EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB
Cheap case
Undecided hard drive.


Thanks.

 

[bob4933]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zQwsRB

6600k, z170 mobo, 212 cooler, 8gb ram, 480gb ssd, r9 380 4gb version, a GOOD power supply, and a decent case. That pretty much maxes out your budget completely, with not much room to go elsewhere. Being an 1151 platform, it will have much more room to grow than if you got an 1150.

The GPU isn't the best, but for 159$, its unbeatable. You dont have the budget to get a good base AND a higher end gpu. Even a non-sale 380 puts you out of your price range, considerably.The 380 is decent, and would be easy to upgrade via crossfire or simply a new gpu in the future.

 

[Dlaw]

You forgot Windows, Bob.

OP, You can't use any of the old hardware from the old computer? I wouldn't trust the PSU, or whatever you've determined is dead, but what's wrong with the rest of the components? At least the copy of Windows that was installed?

 

[bob4933]

You forgot Windows, Bob.

OP, You can't use any of the old hardware from the old computer? I wouldn't trust the PSU, or whatever you've determined is dead, but what's wrong with the rest of the components? At least the copy of Windows that was installed?

Doesn't sound like he needs windows.

 

[deed]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/zQwsRB

6600k, z170 mobo, 212 cooler, 8gb ram, 480gb ssd, r9 380 4gb version, a GOOD power supply, and a decent case. That pretty much maxes out your budget completely, with not much room to go elsewhere. Being an 1151 platform, it will have much more room to grow than if you got an 1150.

The GPU isn't the best, but for 159$, its unbeatable. You dont have the budget to get a good base AND a higher end gpu. Even a non-sale 380 puts you out of your price range, considerably.The 380 is decent, and would be easy to upgrade via crossfire or simply a new gpu in the future.

Sounds good thanks. Will double check everything and order today or tomorrow. Comes out better than what I had planned.

You forgot Windows, Bob.

OP, You can't use any of the old hardware from the old computer? I wouldn't trust the PSU, or whatever you've determined is dead, but what's wrong with the rest of the components? At least the copy of Windows that was installed?

Power supply is shot, motherboard has bulging caps and the ram is ddr2. I'm not aware of any latest platform that would support these components. That was the whole plan behind waiting for the new hardware releases since I'm not really able to carry any of the older generation stuff over. The only exception to this is the video card and hard drive but the video card has had issues which may honestly be just due to the psu and the drive is showing age.

Windows is sort of covered. I really prefer having retail over an OEM license and the windows 7 license I have should allow me to upgrade to windows 10. If not, I'm going to run Debian in the mean time. Which at least allows work to be done.

Thanks again.

 

[Audioaficionado]

I'd get the latest hardware platform even if you don't get top tier components at first. You can incrementally upgrade later as needed. Getting a soon to be obsoleted platform doesn't save you that much $$$ and limits future tech somewhat.

 

[wingman99]

With windows 7 you will be able to upgrade for free to windows 10.

 

[deed]

Ended up buying similar to what was recommended here. Got a different SSD "Intel had an amazing deal a day after I ordered

But yeah thanks for all the advice. Decided to get 16gb of memory where some applications now require 8gb for some future proofing. Obtained a different EVGA psu that was $40 more because it appears to be virtually silent which was a big plus. Went about $180 over budget but I'm very satisfied even if It's not Zen. Decided to take the video card from the dead pc and will be sticking it in this one so I can go for a more high end one in May since I will be ordering an ide to sata converter for someones pc anyways.

Very excited to test out the 6600k, according to benchmarks it's about 15! times faster than the one I was using.

Big thanks to everyone and especially bob for taking the time to get that part list up.

 

[wingman99]

What was your system that you were using before? Post back how you like it for work and how much performance gain that you have received with skylake?

 

[deed]

What was your system that you were using before? )

Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2GB DDR2 at 667MHz
Onboard nvidia 6150Le graphics card upgrade to an Ati 4670 due to not requiring additional power via a molex connector after the onboard failed.
160gb hard drive
Vista (Which I love for all the critics out there )

I've had other computers in the past but things happen so I went back to this until its recent death.

Post back how you like it for work and how much performance gain that you have received with skylake?

Will do. Until recently I would compile some code, sync it in drop box and then verify things via browser and that alone takes up 95% of the memory.

 

[EarthDog]

The difference is going to be night and day from that system!

I like Bob's build for the most part. The NEX are ok PSUs. Here is a quote from a review:

The EVGA NEX650G is an example of a "good enough" power supply from a company that may be finding itself a bit out of its depth in this market.

If you had $10 more dollars, I would go with GS 650 from amazon. The NEX will be fine though.

 

[wingman99]

Athlon 64 X2 3800+
2GB DDR2 at 667MHz
Onboard nvidia 6150Le graphics card upgrade to an Ati 4670 due to not requiring additional power via a molex connector after the onboard failed.
160gb hard drive
Vista (Which I love for all the critics out there )

I've had other computers in the past but things happen so I went back to this until its recent death.



Will do. Until recently I would compile some code, sync it in drop box and then verify things via browser and that alone takes up 95% of the memory.

Wow I can't wait to here how you like your new system and how fast it is.

 

[deed]

Wow I can't wait to here how you like your new system and how fast it is.

Ended up going with this configuration and I'm extremely pleased. Everything is lightning fast, I feel far more productive than I was, running a browser, multiple apps, music and everything just feels great. Wish I had done this way sooner. I always tried to keep my pc optimized and running smoothly and it's absolutely amazing how much of a difference this new build has made.

Cooler Master HAF 912
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO
Intel Core i5-6600K 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.5 GHz LGA 1151 91W Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 530
ASRock Z170 Pro4S LGA 1151 Intel Z170 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200)
EVGA 220-G2-0650-Y1 80 PLUS GOLD 650W ECO Mode Fully Modular
Mushkin Enhanced ECO3 2.5" 480GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
ADATA S102 Pro 16GB Advanced USB 3.0 Flash Drive - To put windows 10 iso on.
Video card coming in the future, stuck in my old 4670 to find that the card has some issues but it's fine for another month or two.

Case may be a mid tower but it's still freaking huge, pretty happy with it overall. I find it a lot nicer looking in person compared to the images.
Cooler master hyper 212 evo has given me great temps. I may get a quieter fan in the future or do a push/pull in the future though.
Cpu is freakin awesome nuff said.
Black pcb on the motherboard made it look nice and clean, overall very happy with it as well.
Opted for 16GB of memory over 8 for some future proofing. Extremely glad I did.
Power supply looked good, fit my needs and the fact that the fan doesn't run when it's not needed is a plus.
Wanted an SSD with 1TB of space but I figured it would be out of budget. The new plan is to pick up a second one in May.

I do like to post improvements that companies can do so they may improve so read below for those.

Cases fans are a touch loud, fan filters only in the front and bottom but not side or top intakes I felt was pretty strange. It is called High Air Flow after all and it's only $50 so it's pretty hard to beat unless one of the Phanteks cases go on sale I feel.
Cpu cooler is keeping temps cool, but wish the fan was a tad quieter and there was a touch more room for mounting.
Motherboard could use 1-2 more fan ports.
PSU wire felt very stiff and seemed short for the case, making it harder than I'd have liked to wire things and keep it all clean looking.
SSD should have software to go with it, it might but I've been unable to find it and a lot of other manufactures have something to go with the drive. Could have been 500GB considering it addresses 447GB out of 480 and once you get the os installed and 1-2 apps you are already at 400GB. But this is true for all drives really.


Attached is an ssd benchmark after windows and apps have been installed since the drive seems more new and not as benchmarked as others I've seen. I'd like to run iometer too but I'm not sure what settings overclockers.com uses and I don't want to run my own iometer benchmark with settings that don't match and make numbers looked skewed.

 

[wingman99]

Looks awesome from what I have read in your specifications also your review of it. Have you tried overclocking to 4.2GHz? If you have not you might be able to do it with stock voltage.